PeopleStories Charity - School for Life Post

Pokim is back!

23/4/2022

Pokim is one latest scholar of STEM4Girls scholarship program who has moved to Phnom Penh for her studies 4 months ago. This year, Pokim is studying in grade 11 and has just reached home for some school holidays. As someone who likes studying science and IT topics, let’s find out how the new school has been for her so far and what she has planned for this school break!

Pokim shared, “ I feel happy and excited because I learnt new topics in my first semester. With the change of school to study in Phnom Penh, I had found it difficult at first however I was able to slowly adapt to the new school environment and demands.”

We are definitely glad to hear how she has grown to fit into her new school environment. We also hope that she will be able to receive the support she needs from her teachers and peers, especially after hearing that there were a few subjects in school that she did not do well in.

When asked if she found anything challenging for her, Pokim said, “ I found that studying this new subject: Computational Thinking was difficult for me. It was something that I have never heard about before. However I overcame this by studying more about this topic on my own through YouTube or by asking students who are good at it.”

Pokim certainly is shining with her resilience and resourcefulness in her studies. There is no doubt that she will be able to overcome future challenges with her positive attitude!

Pokim conveyed that she missed her family a lot because she wasn’t able to see them for 4 months and hence is very enthusiastic about this holiday break. “ I am very happy and excited! I look forward to travelling and eating with my family when I am home!” We wish that her dreams were fulfilled and she was able to enjoy some amazing delicacies with her family.

As for the next school semester, Pokim declared, ”I look forward to the next semester and I anticipate doing better than this semester. I plan on learning the lessons for all subjects before my teacher teaches them.”

We are amazed by Pokim’s tenacity and perseverance. She shared, “I also want to do more research on school subjects in English than in Khmer, I haven’t had the opportunity to do it much and have realized that I found it difficult to do hence I hope to make do this more often to improve on my English.”

Hearing this, we definitely wish Pokim all the best for her studies. And that is all for the adventures of Pokim thus far!

If you’d like to support girls like Pokim to complete school, you can donate here, thank you for all your support and happy April!

Story written by: Volunteer Zeleen Thum

I Learn, I Grow.

23/4/2022

PeopleStories achieved its new milestone on 19 April 2022 by organising the I-Grow Holiday Learning Program for its 150 scholarship children. I-Grow is designed to empower the rural community, including children, teachers and their families with greater life skills to make sustainable change.

I-Grow is a newly established interactive learning program and this time we are focusing on Problem Solving skills. In a constantly changing environment and with the dramatic impact from the pandemic, life skills are an essential part of being able to meet the challenges of everyday life.

Our Founder & CEO Victoria shared, "We're chuffed to host our first ever I-Grow on April 19 with 150 of our scholarship children! Even more excited to train 12 teachers to become facilitators whom will be supporting I-Grow!"

The success of I-Grow comes from a teaching community aboard as well as in Cambodia. As one of the designers, a virtual volunteer to PeopleStories and works as an educational programme developer at McGill University (Canada), Maria Orjuela shared, “Volunteering with PeopleStories for the children in rural Cambodia is definitely something new for me”.

Maria shared her feeling throughout the program development journey, “It has been an absolute pleasure. Victoria empowers me to get my imagination and creativity growing without losing perspective on what is realistic and what is not.”

When talking about the challenges, Maria said that not being familiar with the context nor the language is a challenge. “It is difficult to plan without too much knowledge of the context and I constantly questioned if the activities were at the level of the learners, but Victoria and Pheak Heng (also a virtual volunteer of PeopleStories) were fantastic in helping answer all the questions.”

It takes the teaching community to make I-Grow a reality. After attending the Facilitation Training, newly trained facilitator Tip shared, “I really enjoyed the Facilitation Training. I believe it can help me to enhance the quality of learning with our students very much."

Teaching is not always equal to Learning. PeopleStories sincerely wishes I-Grow can uplift learning experiences and achieve greater outcomes. With much excitement, Maria further shared, “First and foremost I hope they have a wonderful day. That at the end of the day they feel energized and happy to have attended. I also hope not only they learn about problem solving, but also that they value the importance of constantly learning - learning not only happens at school - I hope we can create more spaces for them to grow as learners!”

Maria, who dedicated her life to education said: “I have been working in supporting professors at the university level in enhancing their teaching. I have also been working with students in creating spaces for them to learn how to become lifelong learners. I hope we get to run many more iterations of I-Grow and provide PeopleStories children the skills needed in their near future.”

With full endorsement, Director Reangsey from the Ministry shared at his closing remarks, "I am delighted to see the active participation to all the learning activities from our students and teachers. Thank you PeopleStories for bringing the power of education to Bakong, especially the important life skill like problem solving."

Would you want to help us expand I-Grow with the deserving children in rural Cambodia? Join us as a virtual volunteer now: https://bit.ly/Join_PS

Story written by: Volunteer Pei Khoek

School For Life 2022 Celebrations

10/2/2022

After of two years of only zoom video of the ceremony, Founder Victoria finally returned to Cambodia to attend the School for Life Scholarship ceremony in person. With high spirits, Victoria got to witness the arrival of the bikes, setting up of the tentage for the ceremony and follow the teachers on their home visits to deeply understand how the children's family situation is.

As Victoria gave out the scholarship and took photographs with the awardees, the act of gifting dreams to these children brought great happiness. The vibrant performance by the children and the earnest speech of the parents all culminated in a dream come true for the children, parents and the community.

These were made possible not only by the kind donation from you, but also the hard work by the teachers, who tirelessly visited every eligible child. Teacher Kimsong shared of his home visits for the selectin of the scholarship awardees, “I am sad because my students are poor.”

Some of these students have no parents; some have parents who have gone far away for work and others have ailing parents. Hence, these students live with their grandmother or grandfather. Despite their difficult situation, these students have a common wish which is to go to school.

This is exactly what PeopleStories aims to do: to provide an opportunity for deserving children to receive quality education. PeopleStories goes beyond just providing school fees and books. We gifted bicycles, extra classes for Math, Physics, Khmer and Chemistry. With these aspects taken care of, the willing students have a fighting chance to go as far as they strive for.

‘I love going to school because I can learn many things. I like learning Khmer because it is a very easy subject for me to learn,” said a new scholarship student earnestly. His home has no door nor flooring. Everything he has can be seen in a glance. His mother has passed away from Aids and his ailing father is suffering from Aids. Sadly, he is also infected with Aids from birth. Yet, he remains hopeful and has the wish of becoming a teacher one day. These students love their village and aspire to improve the housing and transport of their village.

The returning scholarship awardees are, too, assessed to ensure that they are deserving of another year of scholarship. After receiving the benefits of the scholarships, they have developed the good habit of attending both school and extra classes regularly. When they met with difficulties in their studies, they looked to their teachers and parents for inspiration. They kept in mind the words of the parents, “Change life, have to study hard’.

‘Education is the great equalizer of our time. It gives hope to the hopeless and creates chances for those without.’ These words of Kofi Annan resonate with our purpose. Despite Cambodia’s 20% average school dropout rate, through our scholarship program, PeopleStories maintains its average dropout rate at less than 5% since 2017.

Want to create chances for those without? Please donate at:
https://ps-schoolforlife2022.raisely.com

Story written by: volunteer Bok Hoon Ong

No more “Moo”!

12/1/2022

Happy 2022! Entering the new year, there are so many new and exciting projects that PeopleStories team is working on and we are looking forward to sharing with you!

One of them is the construction of fences around Chea Smonn Secondary School! There isn’t any boundary around the school. Instead, the school compound is directly connected to a few neighbouring farms. Hence, every so often, there are animals like cows wandering into the school compound, and at times, into the classrooms! Occasionally, farming machines (such as tractors) will also come into the school grounds where students are running and playing. This peculiar phenomenon compromises the safety of our students.

As such, PeopleStories started discussion with the locals about the school fence some time ago, but Covid-19 has shifted much of our focus. Since school is now closed for holidays, we seize the opportunity to get on with this important construction project to keep our students safe when they return to school in 2022. The project started in beginning of December and we hope to complete everything before the new school year starts on Jan 10, 2022.

PeopleStories is not only funding this important construction project but also mentoring teacher Kimsong to be the project manager. Due to the pandemic, many families are struggling to put food on the table. Hence, we have decided to offer employment to some of the local families especially the ones from our scholarship programme. We strongly believe it will be a win-win solution - Empowering Khmer to help Khmer.

PeopleStories believes in encouraging the locals and communities to get involved in community changes for sustainable positive changes. Many older students and their families are dropping in whenever they have time to give a helping hand, we are so excited to see the strong community spirit!

School Director Nika of Chea Smonn Secondary School said excitedly, “I envision more order in school with the building of the fences. Students will be more attentive during lessons. I imagine the school to have good aesthetics and campus, safe with space to grow vegetables. The building of this fence will definitely help with this goal!”

Director Nika also believe that this project will minimise the damage of school property and materials. We can definitely see how it may happen if buffaloes and cows invite themselves there freely!

She also shared that many parents were happy to hear about the construction of the fence and her vision for her students and the school, “Our vision for our students is for them to strengthen their discipline and learning, reduce the number of drop out students, as well as developing students’ information technology knowledge and skills. As for the school, I wish to create a conducive school and classroom environment for my students and teachers, install computers and wifi to support IT learning and to also train my teachers on how to use internet for research to teach students during their lessons.”

Like Director Nika, we look forward to the improved school and learning environment for our students! We truly hope that this fence project will bring about positive changes in their school experience!

If you want to support our cause and more projects like this, head over to our fundraising page here to donate! This year we are aiming to give out 150 scholarships to our students!

Wishing you an amazing start to 2022!

Story written by: Volunteer Zeleen Thum

Reaching for the Stars

15/12/2021

It is a dream come true for Pokim when she heard the news about her STEM4Girls scholarship! Pokim said resolutely, “I am so happy to be selected for STEM4Girls scholarship. I will put in extra efforts to improve my spoken English and computer skills.”

If you remember, Pokim is one of the students, who has contributed time and efforts in the preparation of the “Zero Waste” competition. She has just relocated to the capital city of Phnom Penh for this life changing opportunity. We are thrilled to see her taking yet another step closer to reach her dreams.

So, why STEM? And why girls?

While Cambodia has made major progress in offering equal access to education for boys and girls, the country still suffers from a great gender disparity. Based on data collected yearly by international organizations and the Cambodian Ministry of Education, the dropout rate among female students starts to go up as they move up in level, particularly when female students reach the secondary level.

Then, what is preventing girls from attending school? 72% of the population lived on less than $3 per day, according to the Asian Development Bank in 2011. In 2011, 91% of poor households lived in rural areas, and about 80% of the population lives in rural areas. Poverty is one of the reasons for girls not receiving education.

In fact, a survey conducted by the UNICEF in 2012 shows that 36.1% of children in the country aged between 5 and 17 work as labourers, with more than 5 percent engaged in hazardous labouring tasks.

In the Cambodian society, customarily, boys are considered more important than girls. This belief is taught from one generation to another and has been largely shaped by the ‘Chbab Srey’ – sort of Code of Conduct for women – in which, basically, women are taught to be “worthless”.

Poverty, stereotypes and distance to school also are the main reasons that keep girls out of school (instead of complete school). Additional factors also include lack of career opportunities, corruption, the lack of latrines and sanitary facilities and the lack of female teacher (or even female school directors).

With this in mind, PeopleStories decided to uplift girls via our STEM4Girls Scholarship.  With now 3 girls in the program, we hope that more girls will be inspired to reach for the stars.

When asked for their opinion about the biggest educational problem back in the village, the 5 girls who came to Phnom Penh for the STEM school entry exam were open with their thoughts.  Pokim shared, “There are many students who play games, use Facebook or TikTok instead of using technology to learn. I wish to tell their parents to teach these students the importance of education.”  She further shared, “I would love to start a study club in her village and buy books for the students to read.”

While in Phnom Penh, the 5 girls and our 2 teachers got to visit the University of Puthisastra, which is one of the leading medical science educational institutions.   It is an eye-opening and inspiring experience for all!  Teacher Kimsong said excitedly, “It was such a precious opportunity not only for the girls but for myself as a teacher to see a bigger world out there!”

Would you like to play a part in helping more girls gain access to STEM education? Wave your magic wand for the girls, make a donation today: https://ps-schoolforlife2022.raisely.com/

Source:
https://universelles.net/2017/09/08/girls-education-current-challenges-in-cambodia/

Story written by: Volunteer Bok Hoon Ong

Winners of Zero Waste Competition 2021!

15/11/2021

We have our winners from our Zero Waste competition!

On 10th November, all the finalists gathered together for the final judging. Along with Teacher Sarith and Teacher Song, who helped to translate between the judges and the students, each finalist had a chance to pitch to the panel that their product deserves to win! It was heartwarming to see the local community wearing their PeopleStories uniform and talking to one another as they shared their creations.

Our judges included Mr. Reangsey Tann, the Director of Ministry of Education (Bakong District) and Victoria, our founder, Matt LeNevez, our charity ambassador, Pavlos Spyroupoulos, our corporate supporter and CEO of Llyod’s Asia and Ghada Turner, another one of our corporate supporters and CEO of Pantry to Plate.

During the event, our judges asked interesting questions to each of the finalists to get to know more about their creations and about them!

Our founder, Victoria said, “Honestly, I was a bit nervous as we have never done any live webinar event like this before. As technology is always a challenge in rural Cambodia, we really didn't know how it was going to be. I am glad everyone had a fun time, and the event was a success." We sure think that the event is a success too!

Let’s hear from the winners of the competition! One of them is Borey from the Individual Student Category who won first place with his upcycled luggage! When interviewed, Borey said, “I am very happy about winning the competition! I made a luggage because I thought it was very easy to make and I could use it too.”

How did the judges feel about Borey’s createion? “The judges and I were blown away by Borey’s creativity for designing the travel luggage. He is so resourceful by upcycling used milk cans as wheels and water pipes as handles. We were also inspired to hear about his dream for being a footballer and how this travel luggage will bring him overseas,” Victoria gushed. We certainly think that he is one amazing boy with incredible aspirations too!

Like Borey, another winner Solyn from the Student & Family Category, was ecstatic when she heard that she had won first place in the competition! She mused on how this competition has changed the way she now look at waste, “Before I think that waste can’t be reused but now, we can reuse and change it into other things that can use to decorate school or home.” We are truly happy to see that this competition has created a mindset shift in our participants.

On why Solyn’s and her family’s creation were Champions, Victoria raved, “Solyn’s pitch performance was one of the best! We were all very impressed not only by the items she made but by her enormous courage to speak up. We certainly heard her voice about sustainability loud and clear.” Hearing that, we sure think that she deserved to win!

Victoria summed up the thoughts of the judging panel, “The amount of creativity we saw is just tremendous. With such limited resources, the children have done so well by not only ideating but actually building items like travel luggage, flip flops...etc. I am delightfully surprised.”

We have received many positive feedback right after the event. Roberta, one of our supporters thanked us for creating and hosting such a wonderful event and that she thinks, “All the finalists were just amazing!"  We will absolutely host similar event again and boost quality education with our children in rural Cambodia.

When asked about how the prizes won will help our students, Victoria said, “During school closures due to COVID-19, 60% of our scholarship children have no digital asset to enable their online learning. Therefore, we have decided to provide 4 smart phones and 260kg of rice as their prizes. With these smart phones, we are hoping to open more online education opportunities for our children in rural Cambodia and bringing the wider world to them.”

We are elated that Zero Waste has come to a fruitful end and we would like to celebrate our journey with this competition and the creations of all our participants whether they won or not. We are so proud of every single one of our participants and their creations. If you were not at the live event and would love to watch it, do not fret! We have the video up on our Facebook Channel, so do check it out and give us a follow! Also, if you’d like to support our children in Cambodia and provide them with more of such opportunities, visit our fundraising webpage. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Story written by: Volunteer Zeleen Thum

Schools are Open Again!

15/11/2021

The school closure had been a particularly challenging period for both teachers, students and families, especially those who live in the rural areas, the very students that PeopleStories is reaching out to help.

It was with great excitement that the students and teachers went back to school! Sometimes we tend to forget how much of a social melting pot schools are when it comes to students talking to their friends, playing and having fun. These social skills learned in their formative years are as important as formal education in subjects like Math and Khmer.

For teachers, the school reopening could mean taking stock and understanding how much did students manage to progress learning at home even if most of them did not have access to online learning? Unsurprisingly teacher Socheata shared ruefully, “Students are happy to see their friends. But teachers are unhappy to find that the students had forgotten some of the lessons taught previously!” 

Yes, the teachers are not only working hard to ensure that the students are keeping up in the learning, but also drumming the importance about ‘3 do not and 3 protect’, the new safety standards to keep everyone safe. The ‘3 do not’s’ are not staying in crowded areas; not going out unnecessarily; not staying in enclosed area with no air circulation. And the ‘3 protects’ mean to wear the mask in the right way; to wash the hands frequently and to keep a gap from one another.

Teacher Bunly also highlighted some key differences between the school reopening now and last year, “We now have 80% of the students vaccinated and this high vaccination rate has made it possible for the students to return to school. On top of that, schools have divided the students into groups of 15 to ensure social distancing. Everyone had to bring food and drinks from home too.”

With all the safety measures in place, the first week of reopening had been a happy and safe one for all. The teachers focused on helping with the revision of the learning that had been carried out online. With the fluid and evolving situation, both our teachers and students are working to make the learning meaningful and enjoyable for all.

Want to give us a helping hand supporting the dedicated teachers and students? https://bit.ly/PS100Dreams202021

Story written by: Volunteer Bok Hoon Ong

Pitching Perfect

26/10/2021

Zero Waste Competition is at the FINAL! Based on creativity, repurposed materials used and the outcome of their product, we have excitingly selected 9 finalists who managed to nab the highest points on the scoreboard. Nevertheless, we were bowled over by the creations of all 33 groups of participants!

Are you curious about the ‘why’ behind this competition?

Here is what our founder, Victoria Miloschewsky explicated, “The pandemic was and still is hurting quality education especially for so many of our children in rural Cambodia. I’ve realized that more and more of our children are getting disengaged from learning due to the prolonged school closures. That made me think about how we can excite the children once again and engage them in greater learning.”

Victoria continues, “Then Zero Waste came to my mind! It is about educating children the importance of sustainability and empowering everyone to build something creative from waste! Looking back, I am so glad we did just that!” Victoria’s vision certainly is inspiring and we are extremely glad that amazing things have been borne out of this competition!

Looking at the colourful and varied types of the items that our participants have made, we think the judges will definitely have a hard time choosing the final winners! Due to Covid19, we unfortunately had to postpone our live judging event but we will certainly keep you posted through our Facebook page as soon as the date is confirmed.

As part of the competition, our finalists had to master their 90-second video pitch to present their creations. We were so excited to see how some of them introduced themselves and their products differently! Some even pitched in English and that is REAL bravest!

Teacher Lis (one of the finalists) shared, “What I enjoyed most about the competition was that it taught me something new! Not only did I learn to use my creativity to make products out of waste, it also challenged me to develop another skill – to pitch in front of the camera!”

It is definitely energizing to hear our teachers learning new skills and gaining more confidence through our competition! Her mastering of online video platforms will come in handy for online teaching during school closures.

When asked how this competition has changed how she looks at waste now, Teacher Lis responded, “I realized that every type of waste is useful in its own way. Also, using waste to create something beautiful and useful can be a source of income if we were to sell it to someone who likes it or finds it purposeful! Last but not least, I see how I am able to play a part in reducing waste and helping to keep the environment clean.”

On behalf of her team, Teacher Lis also expressed how excited and happy she is to be selected as one of the finalists of the competition!  We are absolutely proud of our teachers creating their tables and chairs out of cardboards and rice bags!

Talking about the final judging of the event, Victoria enthused: “I am beyond chuffed for the day to come! While watching the video pitches, I can totally feel the passion from the children. I am so proud and amazed!”  To what Victoria shared, we can say that we are too!

Do you want to see more of the Zero Waste creations done by our participants?  Subscribe to PeopleStories YouTube Channel to watch Part 1 and Part 2 of our video compilation and support our children in rural Cambodia.

Story written by: Volunteer Zeleen Thum

Learning with Heart

26/10/2021

After 10 months being away from home and studying on our Road2STEM scholarship, KongNov and SreyMey finally returned home on their school holidays. “If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.” This quote from Zig Ziglar aptly sums up how KongNov and SreyMey master their learning amidst the hurdles faced being away from home and having extended school closures due to the pandemic.

For KongNov, mastering the computer language is the most exciting part of her learning. She raved, “Before I came to Phnom Penh, I don´t know about STEM and I study little bit computer. Then I join a competition called “Technovation”. I'm really excited because I'm interested in coding and I am a coder part of team. I am especially happy I can work with my Team to create app to help solve problems in our society.”

On the other hand, SreyMey has always found Physics difficult to understand and didn’t like it when she was in the village school. Guess what? She started to enjoy learning Physics now! What has caused this turnaround? She attributed, “The teacher teaches us to practise it in real life and he teaches us through a website called "Khan academy". It's really easy to understand.”

Learning has not been a bed of roses for them. In fact, KongNov had a first taste of failure studying STEM when she failed Maths for the very first time. While she was heartbroken, she resolved to do Maths questions everyday till she passed her exams. She not only passed her Maths exams but went on to score even better than before! Her persistence had paid off!

With the prolonged school closures and learning taking place online, the girls had problems that were inevitable due to the inadequate network coverage. While most students just lamented about the problem, KongNov found a solution for the unstable network, “I need to learn and research before the teacher and when Teacher teaches me, I can understand. I also ask my friends when I need help.”

She continued, “At my new school, we have a lot of STEM assignments to do. I always do it before the deadline so I don’t have pressure with projects or assignments.”

Looks like being prepared and starting early are KongNov’s ‘secret recipe’ of overcoming the challenges posed by online learning.

SreyMey’s father passed away just before she moved to Phnom Penh. She believes if he were there today, he would have said, “You go to study in Phnom Penh, but please don’t forget our village. Studying in Phnom Penh is not easy, so try to study and not be led to do the wrong things.  Living alone is being successful, but when you have a career that can help yourself, family, and society, that is the most successful.”

These advices resonate with all of us at PeopleStories. With such loving advice in mind, SreyMey and KongNov have been mastering their learning with heart. The heart to one day, lift the others in the village and also their country out of poverty. The growth of these girls has been nothing short of phenomenal. We are really proud and heartened to have played a part in unlocking their potential.

Join us in our quest to unlock the potential of more children in rural Cambodia. Read more about our Road2STEM scholarship: https://www.peoplestories.net/school-for-life.html

Story written by: Volunteer Bok Hoon Ong

Who will win?

29/9/2021

What a great response from our communities! We have received a total of 33 entries for our Zero Waste competition. Teachers, students and their family members from our partner secondary schools have shown immense creativity and enthusiasm in creating a product that they believe deserves to win!

Looking at the amazing colourful and varied uses of the items that everyone has made, we are so proud and very sure that the judging process is going to be an intense and exciting one!

To compete, teachers and students have just recorded their 90 second video pitch each introducing their repurposed items they have made and the process of making them.

In early October, we will host a live judging event to decide who the winners of the competition! Are you curious to know which creation is going to win the competition? Let’s hear more from Pokim, our student leader for this competition!

Student Pokim enthused, “I am very excited for the judging of the competition as I have taken part in it myself!” She also marvelled at the creativity of some of her peers, especially the one who has made use of plastics to create flowers! Does this make you curious about how the creations look like and what they are? We sure are!

When asked how she thinks this competition will impact her community, Pokim replied “I think that that competition will motivate my community to treat waste differently. For me, taking part in this Zero Waste upcycling competition has inspired me to make use of my imagination to create something new. It has also expanded my knowledge about the impact of waste on my community and in the world. I want to spread awareness about this to more people in my community!”

Isn’t Pokim’s enthusiasm simply amazing? She is on her way to be a powerful changemaker in her own community!

This competition has given our students a chance to see how they can give new life to the waste in their community. By taking waste that is once meant to be discarded and burnt, they have repurposed them for functionality or aesthetics. We are so touched and happy to see the extraordinary creativity and imagination that our participants have tapped into, to create something that will bring colour, laughter, and purpose into their community.

Do you want to join us in this judging event and support the finalists? The judging event will be held live in early October. Head on over and follow our social media channels to keep up to date with the news and date of the judging event!

Story written by: Volunteer Zeleen Thum

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